Not for the first time, Cricket has thrown up a wonderful young talent to enthral its lovers. The cycle keeps moving and its one of the beauties of our sport. Aiden Markram and while knowing that these are very early days is a gem around whom the future South African batting lineups are likely to revolve.
Markram has had a wonderful start to his Test career. He has already scored 1,000 runs in Test match cricket in only 10 Tests. His knock of 94 against India in Centurion and the second innings marathon of 143 at Durban against Australia, are two of the best knocks by a young batsman this year.
Makram was recently awarded the honour of Newcomer of the Year at the annual Cricket South Africa awards and was heard saying, "I couldn't have asked for it to go much better,"
In limited overs cricket, the things haven't begun as smoothly, though. Markram who has played 7 ODIs for the rainbow nation so far, has only managed an average of 27.57. He has the aim to try and replace the irreplaceable, though. He wants to be playing the next year's world cup batting in the middle order, at the number position that AB de Villiers owned.
Markram, who also knows that there will be a big void to fill for the ODI team, as AB de Villiers won't be batting at his usual no.4 position, was recently quoted saying about this on Sport24 that, "It's a little bit foreign to me, having opened for most of my life, but there have been a few white ball games with the Titans and in the Indian series where I have batted at No 4, It's a little bit different, but at the end of the day it's the ball and the situation you've got to play. If I ever got given that opportunity I would take it with open arms."
"I don't think it's a case of trying to find the next AB de Villiers because we will never manage to find another player like that, It's still quite important that whoever does fill that role makes it their own and plays their own game in that role. Whether you get the job done like AB does or whoever ... as long as the job gets done. It's going to be an interesting selection headache because there are a lot of good players coming through. You've got a guy like Heinrich Klaasen and a guy like Temba (Bavuma) who might come into the mix now. It's going to be interesting."
(Inputs from Sport24)
